Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday directing the Justice Department to prosecute people who burn or desecrate the American flag, calling the act uniquely provocative and a danger to public safety.
“If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing. You get one year in jail, and it goes on your record and you will see flag burning stopping immediately,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“Some people would say it’s more important than protecting our monuments, because the people in this country don’t want to see our American flag burned and spit on by paid agitators,” he continued.
The president also signed additional executive orders targeting cashless bail and expanding federal measures to address violent crime in Washington, D.C., where the administration has already deployed National Guard troops and assumed partial control of local policing.
Trump acknowledged that flag burning has been deemed a form of free speech by the Supreme Court, but argued that it also carries public safety risks.
“What happens when you burn a flag is the area goes crazy,” Trump said. “If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy.”
A White House fact sheet described the flag as “the most sacred and cherished symbol of the United States of America,” calling its desecration “uniquely and inherently offensive and provocative.”
The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “vigorously prosecute” cases where charges can be brought without violating First Amendment protections, and to litigate cases that could further clarify the scope of free speech around flag desecration. It also bars those convicted of burning or defacing the flag from receiving immigration benefits such as visas, green cards or citizenship.
Trump compared the move to his 2020 executive order that imposed penalties for damaging federal monuments, saying this effort would have the same deterrent effect.
“You can do other things,” Trump said. “But when you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels that we’ve never seen before. People go crazy, in a way, both ways. There are some that are going crazy for doing it. There are others that are angry — angry about them doing it.”
